บท 645: Mud and Blood
When two opposing magical forces collided against each other, they apply forces to each other of equal magnitude and opposite direction, just like Newton's Third Law. The magical barriers of the Protectorate's Inquisition flagship and the flying island of the Iron Kingdom flattened against each other as the full mass and acceleration of the arrow shaped flagship rammed right the cathedral of the flying island.
It became a battle of magic attrition as neither airship or the flying island's magical barrier was breached. Cartloads after cartloads of magic crystals were dumped into the magic barrier formation arrays where the magic was leeched off the crystals and once drained, they turned into useless pieces of stone and ash.
The escorts of the Iron Kingdom immediately redirected their focus onto the Protectorate's flagship. Steam fire rained down from the airships as they sought to destroy the aggressor trying to attack their King. But such actions created an opening for the remaining ships of the Protectorate, allowing them to continue unhindered in their mad ramming attacks.
In the end, the battle in the skies turned into a sorts of mutual destruction, as Protectorate airships continued their ramming attacks while the Iron Kingdom ships attempted to evade and at the same time protect their king who was onboard the flying island. But to the dismay of the Iron Kingdom, the magic barriers of both the Protectorate flagship and flying island suddenly burst at the same time by announcing to the world with a shattering of tiny light motes of a variety of rainbow hues.
No longer hindered by a magical barrier, the flagship Ramuh's Judgement finally was able to move again. It picked up speed slowly, slow enough for most ships to evade its projected course, but the flying island of the Iron Kingdom was not most ships. Its mass and size was far too great to move out of the way of slowly accelerating Protectorate airship.
Just over a third of the size of the flying island, the flagship Ramuh's Judgement's pointy nose crunched against the stone walls of the cathedral fortress in the center of the flying island, crushing stone, wood, metal and bodies. The grinding noise of stone and metal seemed to be extraordinarily loud in the battle skies and the entire flying island shook and tilted sideways slightly by the mass and push of the Protectorate airship.
The airship finally came to an halt with a quarter of its arrow shaped nose buried under the rubble of the cathedral fortress walls. The Protectorate pilot had attempted to ram the central towers of the cathedral but missed as the flying island barely managed to shift away, causing the airship to ram the outer perimeter walls instead.
Hatches slammed open and hundreds and hundreds of crimson coated soldiers leaped out. Purifying flames washed over the ruins where the wounded and dying of the Iron Kingdom soldiers were laid and buried. Immolators carrying pressure tanks of holy fire strolled forward in rows, their flame lances cleansing the way for the Paladins marching behind. Hymms of Ramuh grew louder and louder as a choir dressed in resplendent robes of crimson and gold, followed behind the soldiers, their heavenly voices bolstering the faith of the soldiers.
The shaken Iron Kingdom soldiers fell back in disorder until they were rallied by their officers. With the Protectorate forces pouring in from the breached walls, the rallied Iron Kingdom soldiers presented a defense line at the very doors of the cathedral. Steam lances hissed from both sides and both the shipboard steam cannons and the steam cannons inside the cathedral reaped hundreds of lives with each blast.
The battle in the skies was quickly forgotten as the soldiers of both sides were now solely focused on the battle for the cathedral where the main leaders of both sides were at. Screams and cries rang out from the courtyard as thousands of soldiers and crew fought desperately. The once manicured lawns soon turned brown from the churned soil where mud and blood had mixed.
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"Your Majesty! You need to leave at once!" A Sky General pleaded as he bowed before the Iron King. "The enemy has breached our defences and are headed this way!"
The Iron King stood at the highest tower of the cathedral and looked out from the crystal window at the clash below. The arrow shaped flagship of the Protectorate was like a dark stain against the once beautifully maintained gardens and buildings of the cathedral fortress, which had been gouged out by the crude destruction.
"My sword and armour!" To the surprise of the Iron King's retinue, the King demanded his armour and weapon instead. The Iron King glared at his attendants with displeasure as he berated them. "Go fetch my equipment! We are the people of the Iron Kingdom! We have iron in our blood! Why should my people remain behind to fight while I the King run?"
"The battle shall end right here!" The Iron King declared as his attendants reappeared with a set of ornate armour. It took a small army of attendants and armourers to have the Iron King fully decked out. The bulky armour encased the Iron King under a multitude of hoses and pressure tanks under the armour plating.
Once encased in the armour, the King stood taller than his generals. He reached out and clasped a great sword with one armoured fist. An attendant quickly attached a hose lined with chainmail into the pommel of the great sword that was linked to the pressure tank inside the armour. The Iron King held the sword up with both hands before triggering a lever causing the blade of the great sword to split open from the fuller of the sword.
Steam hissed out from the gap between the blades and air shimmered from the heat given off. With another squeeze of the hilt, the blades retracted back together and the Iron King gave the great sword an experimental swing, dispersing the heat from the sword. Once satisfied, the Iron King looked at his generals and commanders and gave them a knowing look before he strolled off towards the exit.
His generals and commanders seeing their King heading for battle quickly donned their own armour and weapons. Their armour was less impressive than the King's, but never the less, with dozens wearing heavy steam armour, it proved to be an intimidating sight.
The appearance of the Iron King and the generals turned the tide in favour of the Iron Kingdom instantly. Near immune to the darts shot out from steam lances, the Iron King and his generals slammed into the front and crushed any Protectorate soldier in their way. With each swing of his greatsword, the air shimmered and steam sprayed out in an arc, scalding unprotected flesh and scorching nostrils and lungs with superheated air.
Personal magical barriers were useless against steam and hot air. They were designed to deal against physical objects and magic but not steam. Hence with the fast development of steamworks, steam became the primary method for the Old World to deal with personal magic barriers.
As the Iron King and his retinue pushed the Protectorate forces back, the Iron King's lifeguards suddenly dashed forward and raised their tower shields up just in time to intercept a barrage of fist sized pellets. The region around the lifeguards and the Iron King was bracketed with smoke and churned mud.
When the smoke dispersed, the surrounding soldiers saw the bloodied mangled bodies of two lifeguards crumpled behind shattered shields while the rest of the surviving lifeguards shred their broken shields. All around the group were bits and parts of unidentifiable meat and gore, the remains of any soldier unfortunate enough to be in the way. As for the Iron King, he stood unharmed behind the glow of a shimmering magic barrier.
A Protectorate steam cannon had shot off a load of grapeshot directly at the Iron King, under the orders of the Chief Inquisitor, Nerssia. A crimson red War Jack with markings of the Inquisition lumbered forward and at the head area, was the exposed head of Nerssia. She glared at the Iron King and pointed directly at him and spat, "Lawless heretic! Your judgement is here!"
With that said, she ducked into the War Jack and helmet head closed up. The lumbering War Jack was twice the height of the Iron King even in his steam armour. It carried a tower shield on its left arm and dragged a chained spike wrecking ball on its right. Steam hissed out threateningly as the Inquisition War Jack stormed forward, causing the ground to tremble with each step.
Iron Kingdom soldiers cried out in fear and terror as the war machine powered by steam swung its heavy wrecking ball. The wrecking ball swatted a bloody passage across its path, sending mud and blood flying. Steam cannons of the cathedral quickly swap out for anti war jack projectiles and the cannon crews worked quickly to aim their cannons at the walking disaster.
The Iron King wanted to rush forward to attack the War Jack but his retinue quickly restrained him and dragged him back to safety just in time. A whoosh of superheated steam suddenly erupted out from the Inquisition War Jack and forced the surrounding soldiers to retreat further. At the same time, the steam created a screen, hiding the Inquisition War Jack from the sights of the cannon crews.
The tide of the battle changed once more with the momentum of the Iron Kingdom forces halted. The choirs of the Protectorate sung once more with greater zeal and the Protectorate troops marched forward once more. With the steam cannons swapped out for anti war jack projectiles, the Protectorate forces were able to advance forward without much punishing steam fire.
Seeing the current situation, it made the cannon commanders seething with helpless anger. Orders soon came down to swap half of the steam cannons out for anti infantry to support the defenders while the rest were to watch out for the enemy War Jack. The Iron King having been dragged into the safety of the cathedral cursed the gods angrily as they did not have the foresight to bring along War Jacks of their own onboard. In fact, no one would have expected the need for War Jacks in an airship battle and the fact that they had to fanatically scramble their forces for battle.
Seeing the situation turning worse, the Iron King called out as he pointed right at the cloud of steam, "Order the steam cannons armed with anti jack projectiles to fire into that cloud!"
Several heartbeats later, the tell tale hiss pop of steam cannons could be heard and dark streaks of armour piercing ripper bolts hissed into the cloud of steam. The Iron King pointed at the cloud of steam and roared, "Again!"
"Again!" He called out after the second volley slammed through the steam cloud. "Again!"
Finally after the fifth volley, did he stop his commands. Yet, the cloud of steam did not appear to be dissipating soon and the morale of the enemy was still high as they threw themselves against his soldiers. Just as he was about to order another volley just in case, a massive dark red figure burst out of the cloud of steam and charged straight towards the cathedral doors!
The crimson painted Inquisition War Jack had a couple of splintered bolts struck on its tower shield and another broken bolt in its right shoulder armour plating. The War Jack smashed right through the bodies of both sides as if they were just tall grass, turning them into gory mush in the mud. The Inquisition War Jack slammed right against the half closed doors that were as tall as it was, sending the dozens of soldiers that were trying to shut the doors flying like wet broken dolls.
The War Jack squeezed its way through the shattered doors and steam hissed out as a loud hollow sounding voice crackled out from its chest. "Herectic King! I have come to adjudicate you for all the sins you have committed against Law and Order!"
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